John Haggerty and brother Bart have been active in the continuing battle for control of the Queens County Republican party since what feels like the Nixon administration. But this week John, who has had working stints with top Republicans throughout the state, is going on trial for an alleged scheme to skim from a $1.2 million contribution from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the "oh so powerful" Independence Party (who threw their endorsement his way).

Bloomberg, who all of our entrenched sources tell us trusted Haggerty as a key liaison to Queens County Republicans, intended for the money to be used to pay campaign workers to watch polling places during the 2009 election.

However, the party then allegedly paid $750,000 of that money to Special Election Operations, LLC, a company established by Haggerty.

But the party and the Bloomberg campaign believe that operation fell considerably short of the $750,000 price tag, and they say that Haggerty was not entitled to keep any of the extra money.

According to charges filed by the Manhattan District Attorney's office, Haggerty used the extra cash to buy out his brother's share of their family house in the tony neighborhood of Forest Hills Gardens.

So let’s get this straight: there was political poll watcher money flying around and nobody thought to hire any of our operatives at Pol Position? Five-hundred dollars a day to fall asleep at a voting booth in St. Albans or the Rockaways? We're perfectly qualified. Happy days, indeed!

We’ll be keeping a close eye on this trial, especially if our dear mayor is called to testify, which could shed serious light on how Bloomberg throws around his considerable largesse to influence city politics.